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The PMS system made for hostels by HostelManagement.com

HostelSnap PMS is a full featured hostel management system designed specifically for hostels.
It includes connectivity with the MyAllocator channel manager and a direct booking engine and pre-payment system so reservation deposits will go directly into your bank account.

Manager Drawer

Page Summary:

The Manager Drawer page displays the current balances of the hostel's register along with the most recent transactions.

Key Features:

Transfer cash to staff

View manager ledger

Add notes

Report expenses

Confirm pending transfers

Adjust drawer if needed

Complete deposits

Detailed Information about the Manager Drawer Page:

The Manager Drawer page can be used for a number of different tasks:

Check current balances:

See at a glance how much the manager drawer should have in cash, checks, or cards. This will also alert you if there are pending transfers. It is counting this money in the available balance. If you discover the amounts transferred differ than what was reported, you will need to do an adjustment of some kind.

Transfer cash to staff:

If the staff drawer is low on change, you can transfer it through the system here. It will automatically update their drawer totals.

View manager ledger:

See details of every action in the manager drawer. This includes both transactions and current balances.

Adjust drawer:

You can also use this tool for some reason your drawer is reporting more or less than what it should be. While you can use it to fix pending transwers reported incorectly, at this time it does not communicate to the staff drawer. Therefore you would still need to reset the staff drawer to the new current amount. There are better options below for fixing transfers.

Report expenses:

You can report any expenses for your hostel with this built in feature. The categories are completely customizable and can integreate with your accounting system.

Add notes:

Simple function to add helpful notes or reminders into the system in regards to the manager's drawer.

Confirm pending transfers

When staff do a "transfer to manager", it will show up here as pending until you confirm it. It also includes details of who transferred it, what time, etc. Most of the time what was physically transferred in cash will match what was reported. However once in awhile people make mistakes. Here's what to do in all three possibilities:

If the staff physically transferred money but forgot to record it in the system, their drawer will be short that total amount. In this case, the manager should return that money to the staff drawer, recount the drawer to balance it again, and then transfer the money in the system.

If the staff physically transferred more money than what was reported, their drawer will be short the difference. For ex. they physically took out $200, but only reported $100.

In this case, the best option is to first return the extra $100 to the staff drawer, and recount the drawer to balance it again. Then confirm your pending transfer of $100.

If the staff physically transferred less money than what was reported, their drawer will be over the difference. For ex. they physically took out $100, but reported $200.

In this case, the best option is to go get the extra $100 from the staff drawer and physically add it to the transfer. You can now confirm the entire $200 amount.

You can also use the Adjust Drawer function, but at this time it does not communicate to the staff drawer. Therefore you would still need to reset the staff drawer to the new current amount.

Complete deposits

You can use this built in feature to make bank deposits. It will keep record of the exact amounts of each denomination you transfer from your drawer to the bank, as well as any expenses processed since the last deposit.

General "Best Practices" for Managing Staff Drawer, Cash Outs, etc:

Staff Drawer Management

The staff drawer logging on HostelSnap will never eliminate all human error but it will help you notice when an error has occurred. A few systematic routines done regularly by you and your staff will go a long way to make problems easier to spot and fix when they occur.

Unique logins for each user

HostelSnap has the ability to tell you who did what and when with it's logging features. However, this will only work if each user is logging in under their own login. This will help you know who to talk to when there was an accounting error. Users should check at the top of the screen to make sure their name appears as the logged in user. In best practice, no user should execute transactions, changes or do cash handling when someone else is logged in.

TIP: To help remind staff to be using the correct log in, add a task at the beginnig of their shift to check the username logged in as well as a task at the end to remind them to log out.

Control access with user roles

Only give users access to the features they need. The higher the access a user has, the more likely they can view sensitive information and make changes that can create unexpected (and sometimes hidden) problems for your hostel. In general, only staff access is needed for receptionists. Manager access is only needed for those who need to view financial reports. Administrator access is reserved for the owner(s) since they can create accounts of any role.

Drawer Counts

We recommend having staff do drawer counts at the end of a shift and at the beginning. It may seem like overkill to have two different staff do drawer counts within 5 minutes of each other, but it greatly helps users spot each other's errors. In additional, when a staff person knows their drawer count will be checked by another staff member, it makes them more conscientious about counting it correctly. It will also help prevent theft, and ensure any problems of that nature are caught right away.

Double (and triple check) out of balance drawers

Whenever staff encounters an over or short drawer, they should recount it until their count matches what HostelSnap thinks the drawer balance should be OR until they get two drawer counts that match each other. Without 2 subsequent matching drawer counts, it's impossible for the staff to determine if the mistake was in their counting of the cash or during a previous transaction.

Review previous transactions as soon as possible

If possible, staff should review their previous transactions on the staff drawer page as soon as possible after encountering a drawer imbalance. Frequently, if they think about the interactions they had with each guest, they may remember where a mistake was made. The longer staff wait to do this recall, the more likely the mistake will never be found. Likewise, managers should talk to staff as soon as possible when there is a drawer imbalance. Sometimes asking some specific and detailed questions will be enough to jog the staff members memory.

Count and confirm Transfer to Manager envelopes as soon as possible

The manager will have no way of truly knowing if cash is missing until Transfer to Manager envelopes are checked. Because accounting errors need to be reviewed with staff as soon as possible (so they will still have a memory of the events) it's very important that the Transfer to Manager envelopes are verified to make sure the proper cash is there.

Mistakes will happen - Reset the staff drawer as soon as possible

In our experience, no matter how careful you and your staff are, mistakes will happen and the staff drawer will become out of balance. After quickly reviewing the mistake with staff to try finding the loss (or overage), the staff drawer should be reset to restore order and staff confidence in the drawer accounting methodology. If staff continually see the staff drawer is out of balance, they will care less about making mistakes and will be less motivated to look at their own transactions to find mistakes.

Create manual documentation for transactions outside of HostelSnap

In the life of a hostel, there will always be mistakes. To maintain the financial integrity of your books and ensure various reports will have the data they need, by design HostelSnap does not let you change transactions that have already been reported on. This means that while HostelSnap will greatly help you or your bookkeeper prepare monthly income reports, there will always be some refunds and adjustments that HostelSnap does not know about. In addition, these events usually require explanation and documentation to "back up" or justify why the amounts shown on HostelSnap reports should be adjusted. These should be handled as documentation outside of HostelSnap and given to your bookkeeping as additions or subtractions to the income HostelSnap is reporting.

TIP: If staff are able to give out refunds outside of the system (for ex. someone paid for an airport shuttle but then had to cancel after it was entered) consider some type of "Monopoly money" form. If they give $5 back in a refund, they must have a slip of paper in that bill's place in the drawer that has all the pertinent details (Date, time, amount, reason, etc). It's helpful to have these pre-printed or a receipt book, so they remember to add all the info. They then count this 'Monopoly money' as cash and put it in the cash out envelope. When the manager receives it, he/she can expense it correctly. This helps to 1) keep the staff drawer balanced and 2) give you record of anything happening outside the system.

However, once you record the expense on the manager's drawer expenses HostelSnap knows about it and it's not considered "Outside of HostelSnap". When the manager gives the hostel deposit to the owner all these expenses are documented on the deposit slip and the manager's drawer stays balanced.